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Security

President Biden signs order limiting the use of commercial spyware

The move is in response to journalists, activists, politicians, and academics being surveilled by foreign governments

By Adrian Potoroaca , March 28, 2023, 12:36 PM

Hardware Gaming

You can now build gaming desktops powered by Intel's Alder Lake-H laptop CPUs

Powerful, efficient, and affordable gaming PCs

By Kishalaya Kundu , March 28, 2023, 12:01 PM

Industry

Disney lays off entire division responsible for its metaverse plans

Remember when companies were excited about the metaverse?

By Rob Thubron , March 28, 2023, 11:23 AM

Industry

Lyft shakes up top-level management, hires former Amazon executive David Risher as next CEO

Risher is a seasoned tech executive and Amazon's 37th employee

By Shawn Knight , March 28, 2023, 10:45 AM

AI Tech Culture

Europol warns of ChatGPT's potential criminal applications

A criminal's tool of choice?

By Rob Thubron , March 28, 2023, 10:12 AM

Trivia Gaming

Before emerging as the iconic Grand Theft Auto, what was the original GTA going to be called?

The original GTA was nearly cancelled for being in such poor shape

By TechSpot Trivia , March 28, 2023, 10:02 AM

Tech Deals Microsoft

Don't Miss Out: Microsoft Office Professional for just $39

Unlock your productivity with this exclusive offer

By TechSpot Deals

Tech Culture Hardware

Smuggler tries to sneak 239 CPUs past Chinese customs by strapping them to his body

When will people learn?

Facepalm: One might imagine that with so many individuals caught smuggling hardware into China, people would decide it just wasn't worth the risk. But no. Not only has another person tried to avoid paying import taxes, but they also broke the record for the number of China-bound processors strapped to their body: an uncomfortable 239 CPUs, worth around $50,000.

Full story By Rob Thubron , March 28, 2023, 9:19 AM

Gaming Microsoft

Valve is ending Steam support for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1

But not until January

By Rob Thubron , March 28, 2023, 8:51 AM 11 comments

Nvidia DLSS vs. AMD FSR Performance Compared: Have Reddit Users Exposed Steve?

FEATURE By Steven Walton, March 28, 2023, 6:13 AM TechSpot

A few weeks ago we did a horrible thing. A horrible, biased, and frankly unforgivable thing. At least that's what Steve was told by well-informed folks over on Reddit... we benchmarked the RTX 4070 Ti using FSR.

Google Security

E-commerce company with hundreds of millions of users accused of distributing Android malware

Google suspends Pinduoduo's Play store app, apps on Samsung, Huawei, and other stores likely unsafe

By Daniel Sims , March 27, 2023, 6:06 PM

Blog Industry

TechSpot is hiring: We're looking for tech enthusiasts with sharp writing skills

Join the team!

By Julio Franco

Software Apple

Apple iOS 17 to include many requested features, expected to be a big one

Big changes in store for the iPhone OS?

By Krister Rognaldsen , March 27, 2023, 5:19 PM 11 comments

Hardware

Intel NUC 13 Pro "Arena Canyon" kits start at $340

Build your own 4x4 SFF PC

By Shawn Knight , March 27, 2023, 4:34 PM

Download of the Week Microsoft

New Microsoft Teams promises twice the speed

Microsoft released today the public preview of an all-new version of Teams promising big performance and UI improvements, while using up to 50% less memory. To try it, turn on the "Try the new Teams" toggle at the top left corner of the Teams app.

By Erik Orejuela , March 27, 2023, 4:25 PM

Software AI

How a hobbyist ran a ChatGPT client on a 1984 IBM PC

Project possible through Virtualbox testing environment and the MTCP library

By Daniel Sims , March 27, 2023, 3:43 PM

Gaming Tech Culture

Farming Simulator plows the way for equipment manufacturers' ad campaigns

Vendors look to harvest the benefits of product placement in the popular niche title

By Cal Jeffrey , March 27, 2023, 3:08 PM

Mobile Industry

Does Android need saving? If yes, here's how to do it.

Fragmentation is only one of many issues with the popular OS

Editor's take: Android is a hot mess. Google should make it truly open source. This would relieve them of a major antitrust vulnerability and infuse a massive amount of energy to the project.

Full story By Jonathan Goldberg , March 27, 2023, 1:52 PM 10 comments

Downloads Download of the Week

Rufus to end Windows 7 support soon

Rufus is a popular tool for creating bootable drives. Its latest release adds SHA-1 and SHA-256 x86 acceleration for supported CPUs. It's also the last Rufus that will run on Windows 7.

By Erik Orejuela , March 27, 2023, 1:44 PM

Security

Emotet phishing campaign masquerading as W-9 tax form

Things that are certain in life: death, taxes, and Emotet phishing operations

By Alfonso Maruccia , March 27, 2023, 12:36 PM

Car Tech

Ford teases "epic sequel" to the all-electric F-150 Lightning

Production is set to begin in 2025

By Shawn Knight , March 27, 2023, 11:56 AM 13 comments

Tech Culture

Ammo manufacturer can't make extra artillery shells because TikTok data center is using all the electricity

"We are concerned because we see our future growth is challenged by the storage of cat videos"

WTF?! TikTok often makes headlines over claims that its user data is shared with the Chinese government, but it seems the company is also having an unintended (or possibly intended) impact on one of Europe's largest ammunition manufacturers.

Full story By Rob Thubron , March 27, 2023, 9:59 AM 36 comments

Car Tech

Falling raw material prices are making EVs more affordable

The transition to clean energy continues

By Shawn Knight , March 27, 2023, 9:29 AM 11 comments

Industry Apple

Tim Cook praises China, calls its relationship with Apple "symbiotic"

The US government doesn't feel the same love for China

What just happened? Between chip-related export controls and tensions over Taiwan, relations between the US and China are at a nadir, but that hasn't stopped many top tech executives, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, from singing the country's praises at the 2023 China Development Forum.

Full story By Rob Thubron , March 27, 2023, 8:38 AM 22 comments

AI Industry

IBM and Cleveland Clinic working on quantum computing-based healthcare research

A new era of accelerated discovery thanks to quantum, cloud and, of course, AI

By Alfonso Maruccia , March 27, 2023, 8:02 AM

Wearable Tech Apple

Apple employees are worried that the company's mixed-reality headset will be a $3,000 failure

A warranted fear

By Rob Thubron , March 27, 2023, 6:57 AM 12 comments

The Best Laptops - Early 2023

FEATURE By TechSpot Staff, March 27, 2023, 6:12 AM TechSpot Mobile

The sheer number of laptop models available today is mind boggling. To help you pick the best machine for you, we've narrowed down some of the best choices on the market right now.